Infusions

Oh, hey. I knew I left a blog laying around here somewhere. I guess I should breathe a little life into the poor thing again.

Things have been slow around here. I grabbed a couple of rent-a-tender shifts over Memorial Day weekend, doing catering-bartending for Brown University’s commencement and alumni-weekend ceremonies. It was mostly beer and wine, but it was fun and I got tipped out well. Mostly, it keeps me fresh and in front of people.

My honorary cousin Emily, just published her latest column for Providence Monthly, in which she talked tinctures. (It’s not online, unfortunately, or I’d link out to it.) She even obliquely name-checked me; while researching her piece, she asked me for some advice, and I gave her a few words. She closed out the piece thusly:

[M]y honorary cousin M. induced envy, for instance, when he described plans to use leftover celery cuttings for his own tincture experiment. Clever, clever, M. I can taste it in my gin and soda now. Care to organize a trade?

Oh, what’s this “honorary cousin” business? Just one of the most fun coincidences I’ve ever experienced in my life. Emily, you see, is also a spirits and cocktail columnist in Rhode Island. The odds of this small state having two writers in this niche are already pretty daunting, but here’s what makes it better: Emily, you see, is Emily Dietsch.

And although we’ve both fielded questions about whether we’re related, we aren’t, and in fact have never even met in person. What’s especially remarkable about this is how rare the Dietsch name is in the United States: out of every 1 million people in the U.S., only 30 of us are Dietsches. So to have two of us writing in the same niche, in the same city? You’re more likely to be struck by lightning at the exact moment you contract salmonella poisoning while climbing a tree in Death Valley.

I happened to make a batch of tequila por mi amante last night, and was planning to make some limoncello tonight. Question: does it matter if the TPMA is stored in a fridge versus a cool, dark cabinet, for example? Once the TPMA is ready for consuming, how should it be stored? I have the same questions for limoncello.

I would keep the tequila at room temp while the strawberries are steeping; chilling it at this point will slow the rate of infusion, I think. After it’s done, both the tequila and limoncello can go into the fridge with no problem. I would definitely chill the limoncello; it’s pretty sweet at room temp, but a good chill on it takes the edge off the sweetness. As for the tequila, it’s not necessary to chill it, but it won’t hurt anything if you do.

tremendous. i love it. to continue the chain of coincidences, an *actual* cousin (a bloomfield, not a dietsch) just alerted me to my name-check here. turns out, he’s a reader of your blog! ah, the digital mini-cosm.